Top 5 Movies: Day 36

The Quick And The Dead
Gladiator
American Gangster

I saw bites & pieces of Beautiful Mind and it was interesting. I need to watch all of it.

Gladiator
3:10 To Yuma
Body Of Lies
State Of Play
A Beautiful Mind

*American Gangster
*Robin Hood

LA Confidential
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
American Gangster
Quick and the Dead

*Romper Stomper (disturbing)
*State of Play
*Virtuosity

The Insider
Gladiator
LA Confidential
A Beautiful Mind
3:10 To Yuma

No love for The Insider?

Never seen it. One of those I never got around to seeing.

A Beautiful Mind
Gladiator
The Insider
LA Confidential
Mystery, Alaska

American Gangster
LA Confidential
The Insider
The Quick and The Dead
Beautiful Mind

*The Next Three Days and State of Play are both excellent movies... and Romper Stomper is defintely worth a watch for anyone who hasn't seen it.

It's strange to see so many lists missing American Gangster or even not having it on top. I noticed the same thing on Denzel's lists.

Just out of curiosity, what is it that you guys don't like about it? I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard any negative thoughts on it.

It's a good movie, but i think it's a bit long winded in spots. I'm also not huge fan of Ridley Scott as director. He only has a handful of movies i really enjoy.

I guess I can see the long winded complaint. Nothing about the direction really stood out to me, which I think is the truest sign of great directing. Everyone seemed really natural in their characters.

Still, if I already have an opinion of a director, writer or actor, the things I don't like will probably stand out more.

Yeah, the pacing of his movies has always bothered me. Even his great movies like Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator have this problem.

Gladiator
The Next Three Days
A Beautiful Mind
American Gangster

parker lewis wrote:

I guess I can see the long winded complaint. Nothing about the direction really stood out to me, which I think is the truest sign of great directing. Everyone seemed really natural in their characters.

Still, if I already have an opinion of a director, writer or actor, the things I don't like will probably stand out more.

It's not bad. American Gangster is a good film but I've seen better gangster movies than it. All the major players in the project have done better films. The other part is probably the hype surrounding it's release. It didn't wow me. Maybe it was also because Denzel and Russell's presence overshadowed everyone elses. Besides them who else had a standout performance in the film. The surrounding players in a film are what make it standout. Think about Goodfellas and everyone's cohesive performance. Everybody else was kind of there for me.

TheHazardous wrote:

parker lewis wrote:

I guess I can see the long winded complaint. Nothing about the direction really stood out to me, which I think is the truest sign of great directing. Everyone seemed really natural in their characters.

Still, if I already have an opinion of a director, writer or actor, the things I don't like will probably stand out more.

It's not bad. American Gangster is a good film but I've seen better gangster movies than it. All the major players in the project have done better films. The other part is probably the hype surrounding it's release. It didn't wow me. Maybe it was also because Denzel and Russell's presence overshadowed everyone elses. Besides them who else had a standout performance in the film. The surrounding players in a film are what make it standout. Think about Goodfellas and everyone's cohesive performance. Everybody else was kind of there for me.

The RZA was awesome with an anachronistic tattoo

Gladiator (easily his best flick IMO)
LA Confidential
American Gangster
The Insider
The Next Three Days

parker lewis wrote:

It's strange to see so many lists missing American Gangster or even not having it on top. I noticed the same thing on Denzel's lists.

Just out of curiosity, what is it that you guys don't like about it? I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard any negative thoughts on it.

I can't see how you don't have Gladiator on your list, I feel that is easily Crowe's best performance.

I should probably watch it again. I kind got turned off by the epic formula after awhile. I mean, if you go back to Dances With Wolves, Last of the Mohicans, and Braveheart there really hasn't been a new story played out in that format... just those movies rehashed.

But, I only watched it once, and I had preconcieved notions going in. It didn't help that it was exactly what I'd expected, though.